Army Cpl. Eriverto Ortiz, killed in Korean War, accounted for

The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) announced recently that U.S. Army Cpl. Eriverto Ortiz, 27, of Batesville, Texas, killed during the Korean War, was accounted for August 10, 2023.

In Sept. 1950, Ortiz was a member of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division. He went missing in action after his unit engaged in defensive actions west of Masan, near the port city of Pusan, South Korea, on Sept. 22.

Due to intense fighting, his body could not be recovered at that time, and there was never any evidence that he was a prisoner of war. With no further information the Army declared Ortiz nonrecoverable in Jan. 1956.

In early 1951, the Army began recovering remains from the area and temporarily interred them at the United Nations Military Cemetery (UNMC) Pusan. One set of remains recovered during this period was designated Unknown X-32 Pusan, recovered in the vicinity of Kun’gong-ni, South Korea, near where Ortiz went missing.

A tentative association was made between X-32 and Ortiz, but definitive proof could not be found, and X-32 was determined to be unidentifiable. The remains were sent to Hawaii where they were buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.

In July 2018, DPAA proposed a plan to disinter 652 Korean War Unknowns from the Punchbowl. Unknown X-32 Pusan was disinterred as part of Phase Two of the Korean War Disinterment Project and sent the remains to the DPAA laboratory for analysis.

To identify Ortiz’s remains, scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.

Ortiz’s name is recorded on the Courts of the Missing at the Punchbowl, along with the others who are still missing from the Korean War. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

Ortiz will be buried in Elgin, Illinois, on Oct. 28, 2024.